http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/main.php en-us Gallery 2 RSS Module, version 1.1.7 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:41:05 -0500 120 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/d/21160-2/.jpg http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/main.php http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/times_deli_091118.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/times_deli_091118.jpg.html
As one who gets lunch late in the day I am attracted to places like the Times Deli, with its large upstairs seating area. By the time I got this Ham and Brie Panini the seating area was nearly empty. That's the way I like it: just me, the kitchen crew taking their afternoon break, and the jet-lagged midtown tourists for whom 4pm is their normal lunch hour.]]> sorabji photo Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:02:36 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/zante_091113.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/zante_091113.jpg.html
I am not sure what, if anything, to make of the experience I had at Zante this day, except that something about it was sketchy. I thought it was a set-up when, as I sat down at a table, I noticed a $10 bill sitting in an ATM. Not a bank ATM, this was one of those independently owned ATMs which charge ridiculous fees and are sometimes reputed to have organized crime connections. I saw the $10 bill and decided to leave it, as I imagined that someone in the place might have used the ATM recently and in turn might notice they had missed a $10 bill. After 10 minutes someone entered the diner to use the ATM. I couldn't tell if that person actually used the ATM (he was behind me) but he was there for a couple of minutes. He left the $10 bill where it was. Why would he have not taken it? Several minutes after he left I pointed out the $10 bill to the waitress, and asked her if she knew who just used the ATM, or who might have left it there. She did not know. I told her I'd keep the bill. I am still alive, so if it was a set-up of some sort, a set-up by the ATM mob underground, then my life was spared for at least today. I paid for my tuna salad sammich with the found $10 bill. About a year ago I found a $20 bill blowing around on Northern Boulevard outside this place.]]> sorabji photo Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:34:30 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/starbucks_091118.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/starbucks_091118.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:22:26 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/c-town_091117.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/c-town_091117.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:22:10 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/sunswick_091116.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/sunswick_091116.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:21:26 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/studio_square_091112.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/studio_square_091112.jpg.html
I may want to cross Studio Square off my list of places to be this winter. Studio Square is not a place for locals, and most of those in the neighborhood who say anything about the place say it has been a detriment to the community. Its late-night rock concerts have contributed to many weekends worth of lost sleep and its large crowds have stolen dozens upon dozens of curbside parking spaces. Nevertheless, with the diminished crowds and calmer climes over the winter I looked forward to seeing if it was possible to have this palatial space seemingly all to myself.

When I arrived this night the place was nearly empty, and for the first time since I have been to Studio Square there was a bouncer at the door who asked for my ID. This was the routine sort of ID-check that happens at night clubs and at extremely busy bars. Everybody gets carded.

I was surprised to see my drivers license get dunked into a device that looked something like a credit-card swiper. I asked what that was and the bouncer -- a perfect gentleman who understood my concerns and toward whom I have no animosity -- said that the device recorded my name and date of birth. He said my name and date of birth were recorded for statistical purposes, and that a lot of places are now "required" to use these devices. I have never seen this device but have no reason to disbelieve him on that count. He said that the data was erased at the end of the night.

"It's just a Palm Pilot," he added, as if it "just" being a PDA somehow erased the weirdness of having my passage through the front door of Studio Square made personally identifiable.

I decided to not let this bother me at the time but days later I find myself feeling paranoid about the transaction. I do not object to having my name associated with my presence at a public place -- this happens all the time, after all, when I pay by credit card. The ID-franking device seemed different. It associated my name with my date of birth. What use might someone make of this information should the device be lost or stolen before the promised erasure of data at night's end? That bit of information is among the fundamental building blocks of an identity thief's business, not to mention potentially embarrassing to some people for any number of reasons. And should I pay by credit card the potential exists for someone to connect the credit card number to my name and date of birth, this creating a grossly insecure situation in which I can only trust the good intentions of the establishment and its employees. Studio Square does not accept credit cards but I assume other places which connect their customers' names to their dates of birth do.

One must have realistic expectations of anonymity in public spaces. As much as I may desire it I believe that Americans have no reasonable expectation of anonymity in public spaces or anywhere else. There is simply too much money to be made in the business of recording people's movements for surveillance to go away. Surveillance devices such as this ID-franking device at Studio Square are relatively crude and obvious instruments, but other technologies and implementations are developing at a rapid clip. I believe we are not far from seeing surveillance cameras stationed in that last frontier of true solitude in public spaces: Activities carried on in toilet stalls, department store and school dressing rooms, and even in shared showers at fitness clubs will be recorded by surveillance cameras, allegedly unmonitored by humans who offer the unhelpful promise that the recordings will be destroyed after a period of time at which they can assume no evidence connected to a crime had been gathered. These sorts of promises (like the one offered by the bouncer at Studio Square) inspire absolutely zero confidence in me, and I would go so far as to say that these promises are worthless, relying as they do on the assumption that these administrative tasks are performed without fail by human beings.

Is this incident enough to keep from returning to Studio Square? Probably not. Whether I return to Studio Square or not is irrelevant. I probably will, but the place would do fine without me, and I without it.]]> sorabji photo Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:56:42 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/doctors_office_visit_091113.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/doctors_office_visit_091113.jpg.html
I have pretty much always been skeptical of a lot of what goes on in professional medicine. Fortunately, I am a generally healthy person who can afford to stay away from doctors for the most part. This visit cost me $50, and I don't know what the insurer ponied up for it, but all that was accomplished was a prescription renewal for a product I could just as easily purchase off the shelf at any Walgreens or Rite-Aid. I guess I don't blame the doctor for this, but a $50 co-pay for a slip of paper seemed kinda of steep. There was interesting conversation, though, about the ongoing health care legislation waddling its way through the process in Washington. The doctor I saw pretty much guaranteed that my premiums under "ObamaCare" (as he called it) would increase, probably quite substantially, and that I might do better going off insurance and paying the Obama penalty. I was not surprised to hear this. The president says that anyone with existing coverage can keep that coverage and expect to pay the same rate, but there are too many lawyers and lobbyists at work for me to believe that. This doctor I saw on Friday feels the same way.]]> sorabji photo Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:19:19 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/walgreens_091113.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/walgreens_091113.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:52:40 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/fratellis_091114.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/fratellis_091114.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:52:08 -0500 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/genes_coffee_shop_091111.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/genes_coffee_shop_091111.jpg.html
This place was intense. Elbow-to-elbow crowded on Veteran's Day, D. and I decided to check in to Gene's Coffee Shop for some food before getting the BxM11 Express Bus to the Bronx Zoo. It looked unassuming from the outside but we looked through the window and saw a scene of cramped humanity reminiscent of the Mark of Gideon Star Trek episode in which Kirk visits a planet where everyone lives forever. That planet becomes overpopulated to a point where the humans had to climb over each other, and Kirk's meeting with the leader of that planet took place against the backdrop of countless humans wriggling around amongst themselves. Gene's Coffee Shop felt like the planet Gideon, it was just that crowded.]]> sorabji photo Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:07:07 -0500